Email Design in 2026: What's Worth Fighting For

Kumakshi Verma 3 min readJune 14, 2024

Worth it: mobile-first

80%+ of opens are mobile. Single-column, large tap targets, readable at glance. Design starts mobile.

Black text on white backgrounds breaks in Gmail dark mode. Use PNG logos with transparent backgrounds. Test in both modes.

AMP email, interactive carousels, accordions. Inconsistent support, maintenance nightmare. Simple hierarchical email wins.

The counter-intuitive finding: leading with a discount hurts long-term customer value.

Using SMS as the on-ramp to email — surprisingly effective for growing engaged lists.

If you're only going to build 6 flows, build these six. Everything else is noise until these are shipping.

Our team ships email & crm programs every week. Book a free consult — we'll tell you what would move the needle for your brand.